Terezin

Two weekends ago, yes I know it’s been a long time since I’ve written, we took a day trip to Terezin. Jeni, Arielle and I decided to take a trip there as it’s only about 45mins away from Prague. Terezin is a town of currently about 3,000 people and I have to say a super dead one at that. There is a huge fortress surrounding the whole town that was built in 1780 by Emperor Joseph II, and it could accommodate up to 11,000 soldiers so that just tells you how big it was. I guess the fortress was never used during a war but ended up being a prison and as a side note for those history buffs out there (Jim) Gavrilo Princip, the man who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 to start WWI died in the prison there. That wasn’t the reason we decided to go there. The main reason was because the town became a transit camp for Jews during WWII. In 1940 the Gestapo created a prison in the lesser fortress and then later the whole town was evicted to create a transit camp for Jews. It said that more than 140,000 Jews passed through there with 33,000 dying in the camp because of the terrible conditions and then 88,000 were sent to Auschwitz. What’s really crazy is that now the town is about three thousand people and at the height of the camp they had 58,419 people living there. Pretty awful to say the least. The Nazi’s also used the place to cover up what they were really doing as when the Red Cross came to visit they displayed it as a Jewish refuge when in fact it wasn’t. They even made a movie to show the Red Cross how great the living conditions were.

So we started off the day by going to the Museum of the Ghetto which was really good. We were able to watch that original movie that the Nazi’s had made for the Red Cross as I had mentioned previously. I took us about two hours to go through the museum and even at that we did not read every single detail. From there we headed over to the Magdeburg barracks where they had a reconstructed prisoners’ dormitory which was really cool to see and of course makes you appreciate the space that you have. We walked around the town somewhat as the town is pretty much one big historical sight as all of the buildings were used during the time of the camp. The town has a really eerie feel to it when you’re walking the streets, as some of the buildings were really run down and we hardly saw any people out on the streets, kind of strange for a Saturday. So we explored some of the streets on our way to the crematorium and also the walls of the fortress. You could walk up on top of the walls which were really neat as you got a better view of the town and the moat that ran along it. We also went to a memorial along the side of the Labe River. I guess they had thrown the ashes of 22,000 people into the river during the time the camp was running. That really hit home for me as the river and area around it was so beautiful so to imagine the Nazi’s throwing the ashes into the river was really disturbing as of course was everything they did during that time. Finally we did a quick tour of the lesser fortress as we were running out of time. They had the prison barracks here along with some workshops and out in front they have a National Cemetery for those who were buried in mass graves. All in all a great day that was very informative and I suggest to others who are going to Prague to make a quick day trip out there as it’s worth it!


The Magdeburg Barracks


The eerie streets of Terezin


The town square


Standing on top of the fortress or the wall that runs around the city, looking down into the moat


Overlooking other areas of the fortress


Crematorium Memorial


Arielle standing along the Labe River where they dumped the ashes


The Memorial




In the Lesser Fortress going into the Jewish Prisoner's quarters with the typical German sign saying "work will set you free"


Courtyard in the prison


On the left are doors to the prisoner's cells where they held some of the "bad" Jews


Outside the Lesser Fortress, another memorial

Copenhagen!

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to have no hockey as pretty much our whole team was in China besides the foreigners. Why you ask? Well they were there trying to qualify for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Unfortunately they didn’t make it but in the other qualification tournament two of our teammates were playing for the Slovak national team and won, so they’ll be in the Olympics. It’s a pretty big deal as they have never even been in the A pool of the World Championships. So we’re all really excited for them.

Anyways, like the title says, I took a little trip to Copenhagen. I found a sweet seat sale and was able to fly there on next to nothing, which was a good thing cause it is not a cheap city! The main reason I wanted to go there was because a former teammate and friend of mine from Switzerland is now playing hockey and going to University there. Helga was an awesome host and we had the best time together. I hadn’t seen her since I was last in Switzerland so we had a lot of catching up to do!

I flew there on Thursday morning and was able to hang out with her for a little bit before she had to take off that afternoon to go to Sweden to watch a play for one of her classes. That’s right, Sweden. I had no idea but there is a bridge that connects Copenhagen to Malmo, Sweden. I guess it’s a really nice city but unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to explore there as well. She left me downtown which was awesome! I had so much fun shopping on their main street, as well as looking at a bunch of amazing buildings. The shopping was great as aside from Italy the people there are super stylish and dressed to the nine. So I finally found my pair of boots! It gets dark there around 4:30 so I spent most of my sightseeing that night in the dark. But the city is beautiful at night so had no issues with this.

On Friday we started by going to Helga’s gym, which is really nice. Way nicer than anything we have here in the Czech, so it was great to get a work out there. It was a good thing we worked out because after we had an amazing buffet at this Mediterranean restaurant. It was some of the best food I have ever had. Not to mention it was a buffet, as in all you can eat. They have not heard of such things here in the Czech Republic, or free water for that matter. Afterwards we did more shopping and sightseeing, going to some really old University buildings along with the old stock exchange, city hall, central station and Tivoli. For those of you who don’t know, Tivoli is kind of like a carnival/exhibition of sorts that is opened mostly throughout the year. But of course I was there when it was closed as they were getting it ready for Christmas. That was really disappointing as I had heard so much about it and how every Dane loves going there so I’ll have to go back. We also went to some really cool cafes and drank amazing cappuccinos. Helga is a coffee lover like me so every afternoon when she was like...you want to get a coffee? I couldn’t resist. Cafes in Europe are pretty amazing and everyone has a different feeling or ambiance to it. The ones in Copenhagen were pretty great as well.

On Saturday we started the day touring through the area called Fredieriksberg. This place was full of cool shops and cafes, kind of the artsy area. From here we had to make it over to Amalienborg, a castle where we saw the changing of the guard at noon. We went there by water bus which was pretty cool. It was a pretty good show, kind of the same feel as the one in Prague. Demark actually has a monarchy with Margrethe II as the queen at the moment. It’s crazy as they have a ton of different palaces throughout the city and they live in all of them throughout the year. From here we saw the Marble which is a super nice cathedral and then moved on to Nyhavn Street, the famous harbour street. This is one of the most beautiful streets/cannels I have ever seen. The street was lined with seafood restaurants and cafes so of course we had to eat there. Luckily for us we found a herring buffet. That’s right, I ate about 9 different kinds of herring. If you like herring this is the place to go. Thankfully Helga was there so she could tell me the different kinds of herring and what I was eating and how to eat it. We also had to have a small little glass of this herbal alcohol that I guess goes along with herring. I had no idea that’s what you eat with it, but it did taste good with the herring. My favourite kinds were the smoked herring and the dill sauce one, but I think I’ve had my fair share of herring for awhile.

After, I made Helga go with me to see the little mermaid statue from the story “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Anderson. I took a Hans Christian Anderson class way back in college where it was a video class. So the guy teaching it filmed it while he was in Copenhagen. It was a pretty interesting class and of course we read that story so naturally I had to take a picture. Helga warned me that it was nothing special which is kind of true but it was a great walk along the harbour to get to it and we were also able to see the Gefion Fountain along the way. That was pretty much it for the day as it started to get dark by this time.

All in all it was a great trip of course. It was super cool to be able to explore the city with someone who actually lives there, not to mention Helga is half Danish, and she was a great tour guide. The city is full of museums as well and only having about three days there doesn’t do the city justice so of course I’ll have to go back!


City Hall


Streets of Copenhagen


More streets, this time by the water.


Standing in front of one of the many statues in the city. I think this is of one of their former Kings...Fredrick but am not sure.


Changing of the guard outside one of the castles.


The Marble, a really nice cathedral by the castle grounds.



The Little Mermaid


Nyhaven Street


Helga and I

100 Years of Czech Hockey

Last week we were asked by our owner if we wanted to go to the 100th year celebration of Czech hockey. Naturally we said yes as free tickets to any event is always awesome, not to mention that when receiving free tickets from our owner it usually means VIP seats! I had no idea that the game was being played as it's hard to keep up with current events here in Prague when you don't have cable and can only read a bit of the langauge. We were even more excited for the game when I went online to find out more information regarding it and saw that Jaromir Jagr was going to be playing in the game along with Martin Straka. I've never seen either of them play so was super excited for it!

We were at the rink about an hour before game time and met our owner outside to get the tickets. We then found out that he had two extra ones and asked us if we knew anyone who could use them. Well I had been bragging that day at work about those tickets to Jen, a collegue who hails from Sask and is a hockey fan, so knew that if I told her she would love to come. She also happens to be dating our Vice Principal, a Scottsman, and strangely enough an avid hockey fan. So perfect, two tickets for the couple. It worked out great as they were able to come to the game and had, I think at least, an awesome time. I have a feeling a good reference letter is pretty much a guarantee after hooking him up with those tickets!

The game was pretty good to watch, with the Czech's beating the Slovak's 7-0. Jagr even scored so that made it even better for the sold out crowd who would continuously chant his name. As soon as he touched the puck, no matter where he was on the ice, the volume level in the rink increased ten-fold! After that game was finished they had an oldtimers intersquad game with ex-players of the Czech and Czechoslovakian national teams. I recognized a few names but didn't really know who the players were.

Of course the buffet was amazing and I paced myself this time making it more of a marathon event. hehe. Also before the game we saw our owner's daughter who just happened to be hanging out with Jagr's girlfriend. So naturally I was able to chat it up with her for about 10mins seeing how life was for them in Russia. Looks like he's having a good season and they're liking Russia. Kind of neat talking to her but would be even better if I had met her boyfriend!


Chelsa and Sonja before the game


A view of the rink before warmups


Ceremonial puck drop


Sold out crowd


Jagr!


Again!


Hasek was there as well.


We're having a great time as you can tell!



Oldtimers lining up for the second game of the night.

Sunday Drive to Dresden

We had this past Sunday off from hockey so decided to take a little drive to Dresden, Germany. We were laughing in the car how my parents will take a little drive out to Moose Jaw, or on their bikes out to Lumsden on a Sunday, but nope we drive to another country!

I had wanted to go to Dresden for a little while now to look for shoes. Crazy I know, but they seem to have more shoe stores and bigger sizes in Germany so I’ve been pretty lucky finding shoes there. Well I didn’t exactly plan this out very well as we went on a Sunday and low and behold every retail store was closed. I had no idea as everything stays open in Prague so figured it would be the same there. Well nope, that wasn’t the case. No problem though as Dresden is a beautiful city and there was a ton to see and do while we were there.

The funniest thing happened to us when we first got there. We were looking for a place to park down town and saw a bunch of parkades but decided to look for something on the street that might be cheaper. We found a side street right close to one of the main squares and was about to park in the spot when we saw that there was a no parking sign. Well low and behold this guy gets out of his car and moves it forward a couple of spots so he can park there and us as well. It was hilarious! I guess that’s what you get for not having the no parking sign cemented to the street.

Like I said the city was amazing! I didn’t know this but apparently it was bombed during 1945 by the Allies in WWII. Most of the city has been rebuilt and you can see with some of the churches on the inside a fine line as to what was left standing after the bombings and what has been rebuilt. It was actually really sad to see all the pictures of the city just devastated and rubble everywhere, can’t imagine really. The city is cut into two parts, one part being on the north side of the river and the other on the south. We walked all over the place as you can see from the pictures and stopped for an amazing lunch at a Canadian Steakhouse. Pretty funny to be in Germany and come across a restaurant called Ontario, but we were pretty pumped to find it and each had huge buffalo burgers! I think those burgers were worth the drive!


Jeni and Arielle standing beside our movable parking sign


A statue of Martin Luther by the Frauenkirche


Streets of Dresden from the Bruhlsche Terrace


Arielle and I on the Bruhlsche Terrace


View of Old Town from across the river (would be a better picture on a clear day)


Love the self timer!


A really cool mural


Schloss (Castle)


Arielle and I in the gardens of the castle


The three of us

Frauenkirche at dusk (finally no clouds)

Happy Halloween

Halloween is not exactly celebrated here in the Czech Republic - unfortunately. It would have been great to have kids come to our door trick or treating, granted it could have been a little hard as we live on the top floor of a five story building and our whole area is wall to wall apartments. I’m not sure how that would work with kids trying to get candy...not too well probably. Actually there is an area in Prague called Little America where there are huge houses with big yards, kind of what you would see in the suburbs, so all the International kids that celebrate Halloween go there for some trick or treating. I guess it starts at 6 and usually ends around 7 as it’s a mad dash to all the houses. Talking to one of the moms on Friday night, she told me that a lot of the houses ran out of candy, so looks like they were busy!

Luckily for us our friends, the Stewarts, had a Halloween party at their apartment so we were able to dress up for it. We had a great time figuring out costumes and hanging out at the party. Chelsa went as a girl from the eights, and Arielle a Roughrider, sporting her jersey of course. And then Jeni and I decided to go as a tomato and a rohlik. Why you ask? Well I’m not sure if you remember my blog from way back in August when we were at training camp and as one of our snacks we were giving a tomato and a rohlik (rohlik’s are little hot dog like buns that are a staple to any Czech person’s diet). So Jeni was the tomato and I bought about 15 rohlik’s and taped them to me. Pretty funny!


Arielle and Chelsa


The tomato and the rohlik


Roomies!